And it’s back to Monday today… July 14th 2025 my niece’s birthday. Corinne is what we call her. She’s turning 39 which is a reflection of time in aging on almost everybody’s part, but my own he jokingly said to himself.

Today is humidly oppressive. Yesterday I did 14 mi on a bike ride up to North Bergen took the advice of my neighbors Mithra and Frank and went a little bit further up on the path that I was used to and I have to say I was literally underwhelmed by what was ahead of me. I did not get far and at a certain point it just turned around and did my own thing which seems to work best for me at least.

Next week I return to Liberty State Park because that’s a little more interesting. And I do have my routines that people on social media ask about. Mike has been staying with us since Friday which has been good. I think yesterday was the first day he actually left the apartment and that was just a cover to carry the groceries up four flights of steps as I was heading to do my bike ride.

In the office today it seems like Jimmy Chile is a bit distant whereas Marcus is a bit chatty and I look at myself in the mirror and wonder where that red splatch came from on the left temple of my forehead. I suppose it will bear looking into and see what happens. It was a bit unnerving but not too distressing.

So whereas the plan was to have Mike come over on Fridays and leave on Monday. Today we allowed him to stay and use the computer and search for jobs since he really has to find a job soon!

Bill has been running around driving kids from point A to point b with occasional stops at cd&e. He is able to stop by on Saturday for a couple of hours and one of those hours. He took a nap which was good. It was, since he needed it.

He did the same thing today without the nap and I gave him the heads up that Mike was just going to be in the crib which probably leaves Bill to scratch his head, wondering what’s going on?

I’ve been busy today at work filling in any requests that are asked, initially freezing sitting at my desk and wearing a cardigan, and then that got too warm, so I’m back to freezing.

Just got to make it to Thursday. That’s my goal. However, I do have to work on that. Ambitious career plan that the agency that placed me where I’m at is asking for a first draft singular.

I made penne pesto and chicken last night and also made a special sauce for Mike since he doesn’t like pesto. And I made enough to bring some for lunch today which was saltier than it was yesterday. I don’t know why.

I did not sleep well last night. That’s a lot of tossing and turning for me and the inability to get comfortable and Bills clock radio going off every 15 minutes with some talk radio a.m. nonsense. I may have broken Bill’s radio in which case I have to get him a new one but I won’t do that until he tells me “you broke my radio”.

A short while ago, smelling weed all the time on the streets was a bit unnerving. Nowadays, it seems to be commonplace, so much so that I’m getting used to it.

Back in the day, the only people who smoked 100 mm of cigarettes were women. My mother was one of those who smoked Marlboro 100s, although she smoked more of our regulars for years before that. But she and her lady friends from the VFW sat at the bar smoking 100s. Nowadays, a lot of thuggish, ruggish bone smoke 100s. Usually Newport 100s, and it’s funny because it makes me think of them as more feminine than anything.

At the tail end of the work day yesterday. Jimmy Chile told me his harrowing history growing up and what he had been through. It also gave me some insight on Mike and his travails concerning officers of the court and the penal system, perhaps I was blinded by my liberal outlook that was edged with hope and that’s not how they operate.

And I am worried on Mike’s behalf. I don’t want to see him have to go back to where he came from, and I’m sure he doesn’t want to, but it’s not easy to get a job at the lowest rung of the ladder. Jimmy’s story followed me home and tainted my evening, leaving me a bit bewildered.

On top of that, I did not sleep well. Mike was in the bathroom. He was going to share the bed with me in the air conditioned room so he wouldn’t have to sweat on the couch, which was fine. But he was taking forever to get out of the bathroom and get into the bedroom, and I had my routine, so I nearly fell into a deep sleep three times.

Each time I woke up thinking that he was getting into bed and he wasn’t and so those three times where I was on the edge of a deep sleep turned out to be a hurdle since those three attempts went nowhere and then to top it all off in the middle of the night we lost power at least twice so I woke up wondering why it was so warm in the room. Of course, Mike’s slept through all that.

And that lack of sleep and Jimmy’s story carried forth into this morning leaving me somewhat not so much antisocial but just very quiet at work which is unlike me which got Marcus’s attention and Marcus kept asking me if I was all right trying to draw me into a proper conversation that I just was not having.

No, not because of him, just because of the way I was feeling overall. I still can fill a space up with however I’m feeling, and it’s not necessarily a good ability to have. Perhaps it’s more like a disability. I did see Adrian Weed last night, so that helped, but it didn’t help with the sleep; not much could help.

Mike suggested watching the movie Cruella and we did and it was good and I was surprised to see Mike not so attached to his phone watching a movie that he had seen a number of times. And he seemed quite happy that I enjoyed it.

He mentioned that I would probably know a lot of the music in the movie since it was from the ’60s and ’70s, and I generally did, and if I didn’t know, I asked my phone to identify whatever songs might have been playing.

So it’s lunchtime. I just had a decent salad, which is better than the halal food I had yesterday. I sit and smoke a mini cigar in the same spot where a bird took a shit on my pants yesterday. I thought it was.

Good luck, but the way last night went, maybe not. But maybe it was since things could have been a lot worse hahaha. I have to ask, what are the odds of a bird taking another shit on me today in the exact same spot? I suppose I will find out sooner or later.

Marcus is planning an early departure so we can go see the Superman movie. Whereas I still have to stay until 5:00 p.m. but I’m not complaining. Happy to have a job.Mike is making an effort to be happy, so I should do the same.